Venezuelan President-elect Edmundo González to meet with Biden at the White House
Venezuela's president elect will visit the White House this Monday. Diosdado Cabello warned that he will be arrested if he returns to the country for his inauguration scheduled on Jan. 10.
Venezuelan President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia.
Venezuelan President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia, who defeated dictator Nicolás Maduro in last year's election, will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday at the White House, confirmed from Vente Venezuela, María Corina Machado's party.
González, a retired diplomat who represented Venezuela's main opposition coalition in July's presidential election, is trying to rally support for his effort to remove Maduro from office. For this reason, González began a tour of the continent with stops in Argentina and Uruguay on Saturday. He called on Venezuelans living in the Washington area to assemble on Monday in front of the offices of the Organization of American States (OAS).
González's visit with Biden comes as Venezuela's interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, threatened that the opposition will be arrested if he returns to the country.
"I will gladly welcome him. ... Mr. González Urrutia knows that as soon as he steps foot Venezuela he will be arrested," Cabello said in a press conference in reaction to the opposition's promise to return to the South American country to take power on Jan. 10, when Maduro is scheduled to be sworn in before Parliament for a third term (2025-2031).
On Sunday, in the middle of his international tour, González Urrutia asked for support from the military: "On Jan. 10, by the sovereign will of the Venezuelan people, I must assume the role of commander in chief," expressed the 75-year-old diplomat in a video on social media, at the same time that María Corina Machado, opposition leader called for protests on Jan. 9. Meanwhile, Maduro has already received an invitation from the National Assembly to be sworn in for a third term on Friday.
Unlike previous presidential elections, the electoral authorities did not provide vote tallies. However, the opposition compiled tallies from more than 80% of the country's electronic voting machines, posted them online and showed that González had won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.
The United States considers González the legitimate winner.
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